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History and Current Events September 2020 |
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| The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession With... by Colin DickeyWhat it's about: the hows and whys of humans' enduring fascination with fringe beliefs and unexplained paranormal phenomena.
Topics include: the lost civilization of Lemuria; the 1876 Kentucky meat shower; Bigfoot; the Jersey Devil; the Loch Ness Monster.
What sets it apart: author Colin Dickey's thought-provoking exploration of how these myths appropriate and erase Native cultures. |
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Front row at the Trump show
by Jonathan Karl
The ABC News chief White House correspondent and host of the Powerhouse Politics podcast reveals how Donald Trump wages a public campaign against the truth and orchestrates deliberate attacks against people and organizations that disagree with him.
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Topics of Conversation
by Miranda Popkey
Comprised almost exclusively of conversations between women, a collection of stories explores themes ranging from sex and violence to shame and self-sabotage as they impact two decades of life for a recklessly thrill-seeking unnamed narrator.
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Pelosi
by Molly Ball
The award-winning TIME Magazine national political correspondent presents an intimate portrait of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that illuminates her leadership, less-recognized career accomplishments and her decisions throughout Donald Trump’s impeachment.
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Exploration and Exploitation
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| Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood... by William CarlsenWhat it's about: In 1839, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British architect Frederick Catherwood explored the jungles of Yucatán, where they encountered 1,500-year-old Mayan ruins.
Why it matters: Stephens and Catherwood's findings challenged their contemporaries' notions of Indigenous cultural inferiority.
Read it for: a lively and evocative tale of friendship, adventure, and rediscovery. |
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| The Last Wild Men of Borneo: A True Story of Death and Treasure by Carl HoffmanWhat it's about: two enigmatic Westerners -- one a "buccaneer," the other a "do-gooder" -- who called Borneo home in the 1970s and '80s.
Starring: American art dealer Michael Palmieri, who made a fortune acquiring native relics for museums; and Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser, who lived among the Penan tribe, fought logging efforts in the region, and mysteriously disappeared in 2000.
Awards buzz: This haunting cautionary tale from travel writer Carl Hoffman was a 2019 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime and a Banff Mountain Book Awards Finalist. |
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| To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age... by Edward J. LarsonWhat it is: a breathless account of a pivotal year for exploration, which saw concurrent expeditions led by Ernest Shackleton, Robert Peary, and Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi.
Where they went: Shackleton headed to Antarctica, where he set a new Farthest South record; Peary embarked on his eighth North Pole expedition; the Duke of the Abruzzi led a summit of K2 in Asia.
Read it for: an evocative narrative that's "so well-related as to make you feel the chill" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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